Personal Data

Eleanor Manning was born on July 27, 1884, in Lynn, the daughter of James Manning and his wife, Josephine Grady.

She married on June 3, 1931, to Johnson O’Connor (b. 22Jan1891 in Chicago; d. 1Jul1973 in Mexico City), son of John O’Connor and his wife Nellie Johnson.

Eleanor Manning O’Connor died on July 12, 1973, in Mexico City.

Career

Eleanor Manning graduated from MIT in 1906. In 1908, she became a draftsman in the offices of Lois Lilley Howe, and in 1913 became Ms. Howe’s partner in the firm of Lois L. Howe and Manning.  After World War I, she also became a lecturer at Simmons College, continuing in that role for fifty years.

In 1926, Mary Almy, who also had been a draftsman with the firm, was made a partner, forming Howe, Manning, and Almy. The firm continued until 1937 when Lois Howe retired, and Eleanor Manning and Mary Almy established separate offices.

Eleanor Manning was a leader in field of public housing and urban planning, serving in various public and professional capacities, including working with the Seventeen Associated Architects, which planned Old Harbor Village, the first low-cost housing project in Boston, with funding from the WPA.

In 1931, she married Johnson O’Connor, who as a pioneer in the use of aptitude testing, founding the Human Engineering Laboratory which eventually had offices nation-wide.  She continued to practice architecture as Eleanor Manning.

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